“Court records refer to him simply, as Victim One. Outside of a four-and-a-half page section about him in the grand jury indictment of ex-Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, little else has been discussed about him publicly.

Last week, his mother (whom I will refer to as “Mother One”) removed him from Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall, Pa., where he was a senior and an all-star athlete. In an interview conducted last week, she explained why she pulled him from the school.

“They were not helpful,” Mother One said of the school’s administrators. “They wanted me to go home and forget about it.”

Mother One also alleges that since the Sandusky scandal erupted, fellow students and the high school’s football coach (who also serves as assistant principal) have all targeted her son with verbal attacks and threats of violence.

She also claims that the school’s principal tried to convince her and her son not to report their allegations against Sandusky to the police, and that as recently as this month, refused to treat threats of violence against her son by other students as credible.

…

Mother One — who first spoke to the Patriot News earlier this month — and Victim One, who is now 18, requested anonymity to preserve their privacy and their safety.

…

“He didn’t come out and say anything directly about Jerry at first. He started telling me that he was upset about his school and his grades and that he felt everyone hated him. At first I thought he was just saying what any child says when they’re stressed out or in trouble. I reassured him that no one in the school hated him. That’s when he told me that they did, because he was always getting pulled out of class.”

Victim One then explained to his mother that he was being taken out of school several times a week, sometimes daily. When she pressed him, he explained that Sandusky wanted him to leave the school with him.

She said she immediately knew something was wrong.

“I didn’t know about that,” she said, shaking her head slowly at the recollection. “I was never aware that he [Sandusky] did that.”

According to both Victim One and his mother, it was the assistant principal and varsity football coach Steve Turchetta who authorized and granted Sandusky this access, despite a lack of parental permission or notification.

Turchetta defended his actions, according to the grand jury indictment, saying that it wasn’t unusual to “call a Second Mile student out of activity period at the end of the day, at Sandusky’s request, to see him.”

With her son being taken off school property on a frequent basis without her permission, and his expressed concern about Sandusky being a “sex weirdo,” Mother One said she contacted the school.

“I didn’t know how to start the conversation with the high school counselor because I didn’t know how to come out and say, ‘I think Jerry Sandusky is doing something to my kid,'” she explained. “I finally said to the counselor, ‘You’re a mother. I’m a mother. I have a gut feeling that something isn’t right.'”

Mother One explained that her son was clearly troubled by Sandusky and wanted the school to talk with him. She also informed the high school principal, Karen Probst, that she didn’t appreciate the school allowing Sandusky to take her son anywhere, and demanded that the school help to stop the visits.

But according to Mother One, the school acted as if there was nothing to be concerned about.

“The principal just waved it off, saying, ‘You know, it’s Jerry. He’s around the school a lot and talks a lot with Second Mile kids. He has a heart of gold.’ I was furious. They were defending this guy.”

Mother One said she stopped arguing when she realized the principal wasn’t willing to admit to any wrongdoing. She then asked that a counselor speak to her son, to see if he’d open up. The school agreed.

A few hours later, her phone rang. It was Probst, who she said asked her to drive to the school immediately.

Mother One already knew where this was going.

Reaching the counselor’s office, she saw her son sitting in a chair and crying uncontrollably. He was, she recalled, in “an absolute meltdown.”

Then, she said, the principal entered the room.

“The principal said that my son thought something inappropriate might have happened with Jerry. And of course, I instantly lost it.”

As her son spoke between sobs, Mother One’s worst fears were confirmed. Victim One said he was terrified, and that he thought things would only get worse.

Mother One had heard all she needed to. “Then we’re going to call the police,” she recalled saying. She looked at the counselor and principal, expecting them to nod, or to agree. Instead, she claims, they told her to think about it, and asked her how it would affect her family.

“I repeated the line three times. I said let’s call the police. Right now. Let’s do it. And they continued to stare at me.”

As his mother described it, her son rocked in his chair and shook his head, looking as if he was about to have a nervous breakdown. Still sobbing, he shouted: “See! They don’t believe me!”

Mother One said the counselor and the principal, both women and both employees of the public school system, didn’t respond. They didn’t offer condolences of any sort, she said.

“Jerry has a heart of gold, he’s been around all these kids and you really should just go home and think about what this is going to do to your son and your family if you do that,” Mother One recalled the principal saying.

“At that point, I had had enough. I told him that we were leaving. He grabbed his backpack and we just left the women sitting there.”

…

As the full story emerged, Victim One revealed that for nearly two years he was subjected to various sexual acts by Sandusky. Some had even occurred at the middle school and high school, where Sandusky had been given complete access to him by school officials.

On Nov. 7, Pennsylvania State Attorney General Linda Kelly praised Central Mountain High School for “doing the right thing” in the Sandusky matter. The indictment states that the school immediately called the police when it was informed of the abuse.

Mother One said that that description of the school is false and that she removed her son from Central Mountain in part because of the school’s reluctance to take action.

“IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF YOUR SON”

Neither Turchetta nor Probst (nor any school official, for that matter) have explained why Sandusky was given the authority to pull Victim One out of class and take him off school grounds without permission from his mother. Calls placed to the offices of Central Mountain High School have gone unanswered.

And although Sandusky has been barred from the school, Mother One said other problems remained, which also convinced her to pull her son from the school. She said that once her son disclosed the abuse, fellow students and even school administrators remained skeptical — and often incredulous — about his claims.

One evening, while Mother One was shopping, she said the grandmother of one of the varsity football players approached her in a rage and, according to Mother One, proceeded to publicly berate her.

“She said, ‘Thanks a lot! What are you doing getting involved for your son? Your son doesn’t even play football anymore.’ I remember saying, ‘What are you talking about?'”

According to Mother One, the woman responded, “Oh, your son had to go and accuse Jerry [Sandusky] of abusing him and now he’s not allowed to help the football team and he’s not allowed around the school.”

Aside from Child Youth Services, the police, Gillum, a few school administrators and immediate family members, she said she’d told no one else what had happened to Victim One.

Shocked, she asked the grandmother how she found out. Mother One recalls the woman responding that Turchetta brought it up at his weekly football parent meeting, presumably with family members of the football team.

According to Mother One, the woman added, “Coach Turchetta said these charges are never going to stick and he’ll walk away.”

“She never asked me if the charges were true. She just finished up with, ‘Thanks a lot. Now our football team is going to lose and it’s all because of your son.'”

Mother One said that Turchetta found ways to target her son as punishment for getting Sandusky removed from school grounds.

Although Turchetta didn’t coach her son directly, his role as assistant principal and his involvement in the sports department gave him influence over other sports programs within the school. Mother One claims her son developed a close bond with a 28-year-old volunteer coach, which Turchetta abruptly ended.

One day, she recalled, her son told her that Turchetta was in his face, yelling at him: “With what you’ve done already, no 28-year-old man needs to be around you.”

“I think he was accusing my son of having some kind of relationship with him,” she said. “That’s how my son took it, too.”

…

NIGHTMARES EVERY NIGHT

Mother One said she’s worried that her son will be further targeted as a result of this article, but decided to be interviewed because she wants her son’s story to be heard.

She’s also angry that Sandusky is currently free on bail.

“My son can’t go anywhere,” she said. “He can’t go to the mall. Sandusky and his wife were just seen there over the weekend. Can you imagine what that would do to my son if he were to see him?”

She said her son is in constant fear, particularly about being abused again by Sandusky. Neither Victim One nor his mother sleep in their respective bedrooms; the two now sleep on separate couches in their living room.

She says her son has nightmares “every night,” and that she does, too. She said she wakes up nightly when she overhears her son’s cries in his sleep. He never says what he dreams about.” –Huffington Post

This post made me LIVID, especially as a mother of two teens! I was so angry reading what all those silent partners at the school did to keep that sick old man free from any repercussions or accountability just to have him attached to their football teams. If I was that mother, I would sue them all for obstructing justice and keeping her son in a situation where he was subjected to criminal activity by an adult. She has a great case and it’s not about the money but the principle. How dare they allow her son to leave school with someone other than his parent or guardian?! Wow, this is way deeper than I even imagined. I just can’t believe how people feed these sick monsters children and look the other way. They are just as guilty for enabling Sandusky all these years. They ALL need to be pulled before the school board and lose their jobs.

BRAVO to the mother for speaking out! I believe every word she spoke and I don’t think her son would’ve been abused so long by Sandusky if she knew what he was doing with him at the school a while ago. Goes to show you how aware you have to be with your kids, even when they are school. Meet ALL their teachers, know what happens every single day they are at school, so no time goes unaccounted.

My heart goes out to victim one for having the courage to come foward and his mother for standing her ground and defending her child. i wish there were a way of letting them know that there are many people out there who believe and support them for doing the right thing, trying to get this sicko degenerate pedophile in jail so we can prevent him from hurting more innocent children. It makes me sick to my stomach how all the school authority figures involved shown themselves not only to be moral cowards, but practically willing enablers in this sickos perversions. It is depressing how people seem to care more about their stupid football games than childrens lives and dignity. They dont know the suffering those kids are going through and will probably go through for a long time, they care more about themselves and their comforts and their pasttimes. This moral laziness is gross, ugly, and just another form of evil. The right thing to do is not always easy but to move foward, it needs to be done.

He should not have kept his mouth shut and I applaud him for having the guts to stand up for his rights. How many women let a rape go unreported, only to have it happen again and again by someone they have daily contact with. I simply cannot understand how this coach would be allowed to pull a student from class without a teacher protesting at the excessive amount of absenses of the student. They knew something was up, I’m willing to bet.

BY “you people” I mean the parents who are bellyaching about their school losing a football game because of their predatory coach being ousted. He should go to prison, imho. And I also know about being victimized from personal experience as a teen. I totally believe the boy’s story and I applaud the mother for sticking to her guns in avenging her son’s reputation in that school mess. The school principal, vice principal and everyone else who allowed this boy’s education to be compromised at the callings of the predatory coach, should be held accountable as well. If this ever happened to my child you can bet I would be down at the school with the police and a good attorney to follow. Unless the school district is brought into the fray, this coach could walk. He needs to be held accountable and charged for his offenses, He also needs to be sued for the cost of professional counseling for the boy involved. I wonder if other students have also been affected by this coach.

This is a example of blaming the victim for the crime of the perpetrator. And if your school loses a football game because of a seual preditor that is a coach, then so be it. Are you people so blind that you are overlooking the misery of an innocent student’s culpability in a sexual crime? If if the boy was willing (which I seriously doubt, as he was likely coerced), he is still not guilty. He doesn’t have enough life skills in his years to know how to handle the advances of a sneaky old phart like the coach of that school. I hope Sardisky gets prosecuted and thrown in prison. And did the coach think about the repercussions that his own family would suffer? No. He is a self-centered phrick.

I don’t know who you mean by “you people” being blind, but I was once the victim of incest and told to keep my mouth shut, so this boy’s suffering and the situation described in the article is what I lived, and what many victims go through. Maybe I ought to change the title? Did you think I truly believe he should have kept his mouth shut?